Moving Stop Cocks in Kitchen wall

[mileslt]

Hi I have no idea about plumbing and wondered how easy it would be to move the water stopcocks or leave the old and add new ones in a better location?

Its for my grand mother she has an ex council flat in London NW6 and the kitchen is very old I would like to replace for her but all the water stop cocks are behind a panel in the corner of the kitchen, this makes the organisation of new cupboards very awkward as you may need to get to that panel at some point in the future. due to a new boiler put on the wall in the kitchen last year this means cupboard space is very restricted. so it would be great if we could extend the pipes out, so they come out of the recess in the wall and can be accessed via the new cupboard units or completely moved/replaced to another place as there are a number of pipes in the airing cupboards and hallway cupboards.

Any advice or past experiences welcome as where they are now is deep in the wall between the kitchen and bathroom..

 

[denso13]

It depends on a number of factors including the floor construction as it is more difficult to move pipework coming out of concrete floors, can the water supply be turned off easily and what is the existing pipe made of copper, lead etc.

In principle it is doable but ranges from relatively easy to almost impossible and there is no standard solution.

 

[mileslt]

Guess I could call a plumber in for a quote.

Its a ex council flat all floors are Concrete, there are a lot of pipes entering through cupboards in the hall so possible they could be main pipes, and if so possible a stopcock could be added?

I believe the old pipes are copper? but have no idea is there an easy way to tell?

Maybe I could ask some of the neighbours, there are several blocks on the estate and I am guessing they were built very similar, a lot have been renovated by new owners so might have some advice.

Many thanks

 

[gigz]

You could always turn stopcock off, extend pipe work to a better location and add another stopcock making sure you turn the old one back on before you box it in.